Royals get good news on Salvador Perez. MRI on his knee shows now damage. He says he plans to play soon

Royals catcher Salvador Perez’ MRI examination confirmed the initial diagnosis that he has some inflammation in his knee. The test was done on Thursday in Texas where the Royals open a series with the Rangers tonight. Head athletic trainer Nick Kenney said that Perez had irritation in the right patella tendon, a little swelling in the back where he hyper-extended it, but the ACL, MCL, and meniscus are all in great shape.

Perez says he’s going to play on Friday, but Ned Yost will make that final decision. “We’ll see how he feels. It’s a pain tolerance thing. He’s pretty tolerant, but again I’ll talk to Nick and see what his recommendation is,” Yost told KCRoyals.com. “If he doesn’t play [Friday], he’ll be playing the next day for sure.”

Perez is hitting a career low .268 this season, but has already hit 15 homers. Perez is valuable behind the plate as well, throwing out 29% of would be base stealers.